Scandal Recap: 3 Olivia Pope Power Moves We Can't Stop Talking About

We're about one episode away from quitting our jobs, applying to law school and charging a whole bunch of chic pantsuits to our credit cards. Why? Because Olivia Pope (played by the impeccable Kerry Washington, in case you've been living under a rock) continues to rule our living rooms Thursday nights.

In the second episode of Scandal's third season, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?," the political fixer was on her A Game, delivering biting verbal smackdown after biting verbal smackdown. Here are three we're still buzzing about:

1. "I Will Go For Blood"

The love of her life might be the head of state, but that's not stopping Olivia Pope from gladiator-ing out on the White House. Pope & Associates is now representing Jeannine Locke, the aide whom Cyrus, Mellie & Co. put at the center of Fitz's affair. But Liv won't stop until Jeannine's name is clear. She warns Fitz, and he fully supports her (shocker!), telling her to "go for the jugular." And she does, holding a press conference to defend the young political aide. "The White House is guilty of slander," she says in her tirade, also explaining that she's fallen victim to the same "vicious attacks." Olivia Pope 2016? She has our vote.

2. "Give Huck Back to Me"

This episode was filled with flashbacks (aka Liv with bangs and hairy Huck). We also got a lot of information on Liv's past relationship with her father. She resented him for sending her off to boarding school after her mom died but agreed to have weekly dinners with him so he'll pay her law school loans. His career guise: a researcher/fossil expert at the Smithsonian. During this time, Liv meets weekly with Huck on the train platform, bringing him leftovers for dinner while finding out more about his past. And because she's a genius (who wears lots of amazing couture) she eventually figures out everything goes back to her pop.

Daddy Pope tries to take Huck away, but Liv has a plan. She brings her fiancé, Edison Davis (remember him?), to dinner, introducing him as the head of a new Senate intel committee (that could totally expose and break a movement like B613 if they happened to find out about it – wink, wink). And Liv makes sure her dad gets the message demanding he return Huck to safety. End of dinners with Daddy.

3. "You Bring Him Back"

It seems like Liv spent this whole episode demanding and begging for the safety of the men in her life. This time, she's speaking to Fitz, not her dad. She wants his help freeing Jake Ballard from the B613 hole. And when Fitz tries to explain that he tried, to no avail, Liv's not having it. Enter: the third smackdown: "There is a reason that we're not in Vermont. That we don't' have kids, and that you are not the mayor. There is a reason we are not happy. It's so you can be president. It's so nothing is beyond your control. That's the point. You bring him back."

And Fitz certainly listened, holding a press conference admitting that he did have an affair with Jeannine Locke – it was the only way he knew would guarantee Jake's safety. [Editor's note: You know he must really love Liv if he's saving the last guy she's slept with!]

Meanwhile, Jeannine was already paid off by Mellie ($2 million in an offshore account!) to admit to the affair, and Liv made a deal with her dad that if she lets Jake go, Sunday dinners are back on the table. But it was all worth it just to hear Fitz tell Vice President Sally Langston, "I had her [Locke] six ways to Sunday all over this White House." (Seriously, we love when he talks dirty.)

Plus, a few other episode highlights that we're buzzing about at the watercooler:

 This exchange from the beginning of the episode:

Fitz: Somewhere in another life, another reality, we are married, and we have four kids, and we live in Vermont, and I'm the mayor.

Liv: And I make jam.

Swoon.

 O.P. wasn't always an oenophile! "I don't really like the wine. I don't have the taste for it," a younger Liv tells her dad in one of the flashback scenes. He insists that's because she hasn't had good wine and gives her his hookup for the best vino in D.C.

 #WhatTheHuck starts trending on Twitter after Huck gets physical with Liv (okay, he choked her out!), demanding the truth about her dad's true identity – aka the tyrant leader of B613, who held him captive in the hole and tortured him. Yes, we were hyperventilating into a brown bag while watching this scene.